The Twins had to wait through a 90-minute, ninth-inning rain delay in their Game 1 matchup against the Boston Red Sox on Monday, but they finally emerged in the home half of the inning to load the bases, then Brooks Lee singled home two runs for the 5-4 walk-off win.
The bigger news, of course, is that it appears the Twins will be sellers as the trade deadline approaches. On that note, the club sent pitchers Chris Paddack and Randy Dobnak to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for a 19-year-old catching prospect.
My honest reaction to the deal? Fine by me. Neither player pitched very well. Although Paddack tossed the second-most innings on the club, he also pitched to a 4.95 ERA and was 3-9 this season. And Dobnak, who was 1-7 with a 7.12 ERA at Triple-A St. Paul, never pitched well enough to earn a sustained role with the Twins.
The Twins reportedly also might part with Willi Castro, Harrison Bader, Danny Coulombe, Christian Vazquez and Ty France. I don’t have a problem with any of them exiting stage left, but I will draw the line at trading Griffin Jax, Jhoan Duran and, incredibly, Joe Ryan. There’s been mention that Ryan, the team’s best pitcher, might be moving on, too, but that would be a huge mistake.
It’s clear the Twins’ bullpen has an A-team and a B-team. Jax and Duran are the obvious representatives of the A-team. The others are Brock Stewart, the artist formerly known as Louie Varland and Cole Sands. After that we start getting into B-team territory.
The Twins go for the series win on Tuesday. A starter has not been named.
Extra innings…
–The Twins are 51-55. They are 11-11 in July and 13-17 in one-run games.
–The Red Sox are 57-51. They are 15-7 in July and 14-21 in one-run games.
–The Twins dropped the three-game series to the Washington Nationals with a 7-2 loss on Sunday. They went with a bullpen day on the mound and it blew up on them. Sands allowed a run, Coulombe did the same thing and then Travis Adams coughed up five more. The other problem? The Twins were a combined 1-for-21 with runners in scoring position over the three games.
–The Twins also were a less than ideal 2-for-9 with RISP and left 10 men on base in Monday’s win.
–Ex-Twin Luis Arraez hit a rare home run, his sixth, in the Padres’ 7-6 win over the Mets on Monday. Arraez had two hits, scored a run and drove in two more. He’s hitting .292.